To me it sounds like the grease in the ignition was NOT dielectric grease, if it was, there would not be a short.
The Red wire in the ignition harness is the constant power...this wire is always hot.
The purple is the accessory wire. This wire only goes hot when the key is turned to the first position, or in some cases, in the backwards position (turning the key back towards you past the off position.)
This wire controls power to the PDC (power distribution center) and feeds the circuits like radio, heater/ac/fan, etc....
Even if these two wires were to short together, it wouldn't be an issue....but it sounds like they (or rather their contacts inside the tumbler) shorter or at least partially shorted to ground thru the moisture in the grease. Dielectric grease is non-conductive, and would not have caused this issue.
Now that all the "hind-sight" is out of the way, lets focus on your solution.....
blowing the ignition module/tumbler out and getting it all nice and clean is a good start. Swapping it out probably wasn't all that necessary, depending on how much damage was already caused by the shorts. In any case, I would highly recommend putting some dielectric grease into the replacement tumbler. This will not only keep things operating smoothly, but will ward off moisture, corrosion, and will prevent any future shorts.
I would also do a really thorough examination of as much of the wiring as you can.... tracing the wires that were the hottest and replacing burnt sections, or at the very least wrapping them with an insulator of sorts. (electrical tape will work ok for this)
Also look closely at the fuses in the fuse blocks. The affected circuits may have gotten hot and the terminals may have melted some of the plastic surrounding them in the fuse block. Replace any melted or corroded fuses immediately.
Bottom line? .....glad you got it fixed, and good job on being diligent about your troubleshooting and subsequent repairs!